Scrap that recording - it'll become an instant classic

When Ian Gillan, foghorn-voiced frontman of hard rock dinosaurs Deep Purple, asked people this week not to buy their live album Deep Purple - NEC 1993, there were no doubt many millions of record buyers who were only too happy to oblige. Even some Purps completists would probably agree with Gillan's claim that the performance recorded therein was a poor one. But ever since Gillan forced Sony BMG to remove the album from shops, fans have been queuing up to get their hands on it like children at a fireworks shop. On eBay yesterday, the price for one CD had reached £21, with five days' bidding still to go.

Just as rock fans like to claim exclusive ownership of their favourite artists by pointing out that they were followers back when their idols were busking outside Woolworths, there is nothing a committed rock anorak likes more than owning something that other fans haven't got. And down the years, disagreements between artists and record companies have provided collectors with many such rare artefacts.

For the American release of their 1966 compilation album Yesterday and Today, The Beatles thought it would be a hilarious jape to pose for the sleeve covered in decapitated dolls and pieces of raw meat. After a shocked reaction from retailers, Parlophone recalled the albums, but not all of them ended up as landfill. One surviving copy has since sold for $38,500.

There are also copies of Bob Dylan's 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan that feature four tracks that he replaced at the last minute saying they were too old-fashioned. One collector paid $35,000 for a stereo copy with the original track listing.

Legend has it that the Sex Pistols made £75,000 when they signed to A&M records in March 1977, then got dropped six days later. Yet those lucky individuals who managed to obtain an unreleased A&M 7in single of God Save the Queen will since have made even more between them. How do I know this? When A&M was swallowed up by Universal in 1998, long-serving employees were given mint-condition A&M God Save The Queen singles. My wife was one such benefactor, and she promptly sold it for £2,000 to a roofer in Blackpool. By 2006, copies were reportedly changing hands for £13,000. Rock'n'roll swindle? No, supply and demand.